RHYTHMS OF THE SOUL, By Muhammad Naveed Ahmed (Emmenay) [latest novels to read .TXT] 📗

and carefree.
But some devils who were masters of fraud,
Were plotting to sever their frail life-cord.
And it happened in 1997 -- August's last day,
The Princess of hearts met death on her way -
On the way to reclaim the joy she had lost,
In a crash did she and Dodi die on the spot.
Millions wept for her and mourned her loss,
And the royalty revealed its artificial gloss.
To this day her cause of death is not known,
Was it fate's act, or some plot unknown?
The name Diana Spencer shall be adored for long,
It will take ages for like-her to be born.

This poem was first written on the fourth death anniversary of Princess Diana on August the 31st 2001.

(25) I CAN’T LOVE YOU LIKE BEFORE
(Inspired by a ghazal by Faiz Ahmed Faiz)

Don't ask me to love you, like I loved you once,
Don't ask me beloved, not like before.
Heartbreaks can be healed,
But not again; and again.
You played with my feelings,
Time and time again.
I was the fool, you knew it too well:
I was charmingly entrapped, again and again.
You were by my side in the face of storms,
But when we saw the rainbow you ran away,
While I came for you, time and time again.
Things would have been different,
If I had been an angel,
But I told you I wasn’t one,
Time and time again.
There are other griefs in life than the aches of love,
And other pursuits than just the bliss of love.


(26) A DIALOGUE WITH NATIONS

In the Name of Allah (God) do I begin,
In the Name of the One Who is,
The Compassionate, the Merciful,
There is nothing like unto Him.
Then I humbly offer my salutation of peace,
To Prophet Muhammad, the harbinger of peace.
It's through him that souls are defined,
It's through him that souls are refined,
It's through him that all mankind,
Has received the Message of peace.

Sincere is my appeal to my fellowmen,
In all the wide, spread out land,
May my Lord give flow to my words,
So that you all may understand.
I appeal with a passage from the Quran,
Addressed to us all as a whole,
"O mankind, adore your Gaurdian Lord,
Who created you from one soul."
And from that soul create its mate,
And from the two, made nations, whole."
Some are humble and some are great,
But it is up to us to remember,
That all of us have been made equal,
That in God's sight nobody is great.
We have become tribes and nations,
So that we may learn about civilization.
Some belong to Asia, some to Europe,
Some to Africa, some Australia,
Some come from the Americas,
Some even live in Antarctica.

But it doesn't matter where we come from,
We are all humans with the same form,
Our ancestral strains are all similar,
Be we at the two Poles or the Equator.
This is my plea to all men and women,
Who make the communities of all nations:
Let's not work mischief in the land,
Be it on the hills or the desert sands.
Let's help each other in doing good,
Let one and all earn their livelihood.
Let the rich share their wealth with the poor,
And be kind to the wayfarer.
Let us strive against exploitation,
Be it of a man, a child, or a woman.
May all of us who are far and near,
Spread the message of peace and vanquish fear.
Let us pledge on every occasion,
That we shalln't be lured by lust and passion.
That we shall strive against poverty and hunger,
And eliminate lawlessness on every border.
Let us all agree with determination,
That we all shall become one great nation.
United in the bonds of harmony and peace,
So that hatred and war-mongering seize.


(27) EVEN I AM A LOVER, O GOD!

The night like a venomous snake,
Hisses at me... to devour me,
The stars are stones drifting in space,
And the monsoon wind a raging fire.
Every support has collapsed O God!
Who will heal my broken heart?
If a temple crumbles it's rebuilt,
Can anyone mend this soul of mine?
You have taken my beloved from me,
Yet You say I follow Your guidance?
You shouldn't have created love O God,
Nor should You have made hearts that pine.
O come on my Lord! I am hurt... shattered!
What if I drown myself in wine?
Baffle me not with Your scriptures,
To me only my love was mine.
You made all out of love for someone,
You made paradise because You too loved,
Then why place blocks in my path?
Am I too not a lover O God?

(28) FEBRUARY BLUES

Snow on hills
Cold biting winds snap
Where to go, where O my heart?
City folks laugh
They have tuned themselves
To the humdrum of living.
Green boughs smile
Yet I ignore them
What is spring without Daphne!
I forget
That I too exist
As I pull darkness on me.
Dreams come
And in them she comes
Ah if sleep had not ended!
I am dazed
Yet I cannot stop
Carrying on for my needy.
Adnan* says
Go to where she is
High up there waiting for you.
I want to
But there is a chain
Which does not let go of me.
The bondage
Of body and soul
Continues to shackle me.

(29) FOR HOW LONG?

How long will innocents be fooled,
The innocents of this world, you and me,
How long will the tyrants rule,
There must be a way out to be free.
These big men and women on their thrones,
Enjoying the taste of our blood and sweat,
I must find the means to topple them,
To rise against them, haven't I sworn?
O God, make me firm in my resolve,
Strengthen me and lead me on,
Make me brave like Ali* and Hussain*,
So that I wipe out fear, tears and pain.

* ALI: The fourth caliph of Islam and the son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him)
* HUSSAIN: The second of Ali and the grandson of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) who preferred martyrdom in Karbala, Iraq.

(30) FRAGRANCE

Far and wide did the gossip of our love affair abound,
Like fragrance did my man long to be around.
Ah, the peace I felt, when my messiah touched my head!
But for him I would have since long been dead.
He wandered everywhere with his heart and his chatter,
But would return to me and to me this mattered.
In the end he left me for someone else -- it is true --
But to talk about it would ruin me through and through...
EPITAPH:
Far and wide the pathos of Parveen's poetry abounds,
How could she carry on when true love couldn't be found!

The late Parveen Shakir was arguably the best known woman poet of Pakistan. She was a batchmate when I was a probationary officer undergoing training at the Civil Services Academy in Walton, Lahore. Her poetry is a blend of feminine idealism and realism. Parveen always longed for true love...she died in a road accident in 1997.

(31) WITH MIRZA GHALIB

With Ghalib in Balli Maraan,
I too should have spent some days,
With poetry, music and literature,
Forgetting every sin of our ways.
Perhaps the drudgery of present life,
Would not have been unbearable then,
When Ghalib's ghazals and wise advice,
Would have taught me more of women and men.
Perhaps the dark Qasim Jan Street,
Where the poets lived on borrowed time,
Would have been somewhat less arduous,
If there had been no Shams to cheat.
Perhaps Mirza and the dancing girl,
Would have found some meaning in their lives -
Some verse of hope playing on her lips,
Some poem of woe between wine sips...
EPITAPH
God knows best but He separated us all,
And a century passed to divide our sighs.

Inspired by the life and poetry of Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib the greatest Urdu poet (1797-18969). Shams was his cousin and a cunning man who is believed to have cheated Ghalib in getting his share of the pension amount left for his family. It is well known that Ghalib spent a lifetime of poverty and died in penury. Today, the whole world of literature owes a lot to him and his remarkable poetry.

(32) NO ATTACHMENTS

My heart is no longer attached here,
In this desolate garden where evil conspires,
Has any true soul ever found true peace,
In a place of inconstancy, doubt and fear?
Tell my desires to seek a new abode,
For the heart is ablaze in a scorching fire,
The realm where forlorn souls found joy,
Has now been burnt down by flaming spears.
How unkind has fate been to poor Zafar* --
The king who ruled over a great empire --
He has been finally found dead in a distant land,
And deprived of a grave near his dear and near.

Translation of a famous ghazal by Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar. He was overthrown by the British after the 1857 revolt by Indians against the Englishmen who had come to India as merchants but connived and plotted against its own people. The British sent Bahadur Shah Zafar into exile in the Andaman Islands (A place where only convicts and prisoners of the state were deported) and his family was massacred. Ghalib, who was a contemporary of the Mughal emperor has written about this in his letters. Here the king, a poet himself, has lamented on his misfortunes.

(33) GOD AND ME

When nothing else existed there was but God,
What would I have been if I had not been!
After my creation have I been cast down,
Ah, the greatness, if I had never been!
When this head has become so inert to pain,
Then, why grieve and sigh, if it is beheaded,
If this hadn’t happened on a lap it would have slept,
Many ages have passed since Ghalib died,
Still, the greatest poet is often envied,
People still speak of his oft-quoted saying:
Ah that if jusy this and not that had been!

This is a translation of a famous ghazal by Mirza Ghalib.

(34) GOD KNOWS BEST

Husky night,
Men gather at mosque,
Along with some worshippers.
All rush in,
Congregation time,
Lines are formed and verses read.
A cat sleeps,
Peacefully outside,
Alms-seekers converge there.

I smoke on,
Fag after fag comes,
As the prayer time goes by.
God knows best,
Who loves Him more,
Those inside or the lone soul outside.

(35) WHEN GOD SAID AMEN

Ah, the talks I had, with several old men,
About years spent, about how, what and when,
Till the present echoed with my beloved’s wisdom
And in her loving gaze did I see God's Amen!

(36) WHERE HAS EVERYTHING GONE?

Ah, where has the sweet pain of parting gone?
Ah, where has the joy of meeting her gone?
Once filled with visions of her beauty,
Ah, where has now my imagination gone?
How can I shed tears of blood now,
When the heartache and the grief is gone!
Now, the days are filled with life's worries,
O, what has happened? Where’s the poet in me gone?


(37) GORY TIMES